Thursday, August 09, 2007

GOVT LOST P2.5 B AS A RESULT OF DIWALWAL MINING MORATORIUM

The government has lost more than P2.5 billion in potential incomesince it imposed a mining moratorium in 2002 at the gold-rush siteat Mt. Diwalwal in Monkayo, Compostela Valley, a village officialclaimed.

“Everything is on a stalemate here at Mt. Diwalwal. The government has been losing more than P500 million each year since 2002 when itstopped mining operations in an area 600 meters above sea level,”Mt.Diwalwal barangay captain Franco Tito told The STAR.

Tito said this portion of Mt. Diwalwal is considered to be a “virgin area” compared to the part 850 meters above sea level thatis nearly mined out by more than 50,000 small-scale miners.

“Since 2002, when the government stopped their operations, the miners have to make do only with what they could get out of whatremains of the 850-meter level area,” he said.

Tito said the area where the mining moratorium was imposed has been the subject of intense rivalry among major firms operating atMt. Diwalwal such as JB Management Corp. and Helica Mining Co.

But Tito said the P2.5 billion in lost income is just a fraction of government losses since the extraction of mineral deposits started at Mt. Diwalwal in the 1980s.

The government has yet to legalize the largely small-scale mining operations at Mt. Diwalwal.

Tito said it was former Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Heherson Alvarez who proposed Proclamation 297, which President Arroyo signed in 2002, declaring Mt. Diwalwal a mineral reservation under the management of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Alvarez, who was recently appointed chairman of the Philippine MiningDevelopment Corp., then proceeded to form mining cooperatives, which were given permits to operate at the 729-hectare mining site underan 85-15 revenue sharing scheme, in favor of the small-scale miners.

Tito, meanwhile, bewailed the lack of continuity in the government’s programs at the mining site.

“They keep changing people at the DENR and every now and then, another program is introduced, so there is no continuity at all in whatthe government really wants to do at Mt. Diwalwal,” he said.

Tito is also hopeful that the government would soon make true its promise of constructing a P100-million road leading to the mining site.